John Kennedy

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. I ask unanimous consent that the preamble be agreed to and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. KENNEDY. I know of no further debate on the resolution.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 96, submitted earlier today.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I have a resolution under the--we call it a CRA, to rescind one of President Biden's regulations. In 1938, we drilled the first well in the ``Gulf of America,'' which some people still call the Gulf of Mexico. Since then, 87 years have passed, and we have drilled about 6,000 wells in the gulf. We have laid hundreds of thousands of miles of pipelines. The oil and gas companies who did this have surveyed, they have x rayed every square inch of the seabed in the gulf. They have surveyed, they have x rayed 311,652 square nautical miles in the gulf. Put Texas and California together, that is the geographical area that has been surveyed by the oil and gas industry. Why did they do that? For safety reasons. So before they put a platform in the gulf, they knew where they were putting it. And, No. 2, to preserve history, because we have--or had a lot of shipwrecks in the gulf, from which we can learn about the past. In fact, as a result of this effort by the oil and gas industry to x ray the entire gulf, we have discovered 4,000 shipwrecks. In the waning days of the Biden administration, September of 2024, the Department of the Interior, under the Biden administration, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management--we call it BOEM--promulgated a midnight regulation. This is what the regulation said: You have to survey it again. Even though the entire gulf has been surveyed, you have to do it again, oil and gas industry. If you want to drill a well, or if you want to lay some pipeline, you have got to x ray it again. Why? Because the government says so. This is going to add anywhere from--I don't know--$20,000 up to, potentially, $1 million to the cost of drilling a well, to x ray after an x ray has already been done. That, of course, is going to increase the cost of the well, which is going to increase the cost of the oil and gas from the well, which is going to be passed on to the consumer, which is going to raise the price of energy, which is going to contribute to inflation in America. You want to know why we had such outrageous inflation under President Biden? Because of regulations like this. And there are hundreds more that increased prices needlessly. That is why under President Biden, the average person's electricity bill in America went up 20 percent under President Biden. We don't need this regulation. I do not know--well, let me put it another way. I am not saying that the person at the Department of the Interior who came up with this idea is the dumbest person in the world. I am not saying that. But I am saying that the person at BOEM who came up with this idea better worry that the dumbest person in the world doesn't die because he is in the running. My CRA would kill this rule dead as Woodrow Wilson, and I hope my colleagues will vote for it. I yield back all time on Calendar No. 15, S.J. Res. 11.

Mr. KENNEDY. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I rise today for two reasons. No. 1, I am losing one of my best colleagues--she is sitting right here next to me--Ms. Jess Andrews. Jess has run my communications shop for--I don't know how many years--5 years. I try to hire really good people, and, certainly, Jess is one of them. She is a very moral person. She is whip-smart. But when you hire good people, you know you are going to lose them because good people, capable people, like Jess, are ambitious people, and they want to move on to new positions. Jess is becoming deputy chief of staff to our new Senator from Ohio. I wish her well, and I just wanted to thank her publicly. Jess Andrews is the real deal, and she has just done an extraordinary job for the people in Louisiana and for the American people, and I am so, so grateful. I congratulate our new Senator from Ohio. He is getting a good one. So thank you, Jess.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 97, which was submitted earlier today

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. on Wednesday, February 26; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, morning business be closed, and the order of February 18 in relation to S.J. Res. 10 be executed; further, I ask unanimous consent that at 12 noon the Senate proceed to executive session and vote on confirmation of the Greer nomination, as provided under the previous order, and that following disposition of the Greer nomination, the Senate resume consideration of S.J. Res. 10.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, Senators should also expect two votes tomorrow evening: passage of S.J. Res. 10, and No. 2, motion to proceed to Calendar No. 14, S.J. Res. 12, Senator Hoeven's CRA.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it seems to me that it is important, as we conclude tonight, that we admit to the American people what we know to be true ourselves, and that is that most of these amendments are fiction. It is professional wrestling. It is the Undertaker v. Andre the Giant. They have been all foam and no beer. All salt and no tequila. Unless you do your research on Instagram, you know that our bill is going to be not about taxes but about immigration and defense. There will be time to consider my friend Senator Warren's amendment, but it won't be on this bill. There will be time to point out that 60 percent of tax cuts in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act affected the middle class. For that reason I ask for a ``no'' vote.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, all foam, no beer. Vote on Amendment No. 734

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, all foam, no beer. This proposal deals with healthcare spending. I would remind my colleagues and friends that NIH recently announced their intention to cap indirect costs for grants. Many of our universities are spending all of the taxpayer money on overhead. Harvard is spending 69 percent; Yale, 67.5 percent--on overhead. Isn't that special? Johns Hopkins, 63.7 percent. This will make Bernie Madoff blush. I will revise and extend my other remarks: all foam, no beer. Vote on Amendment No. 880

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, with me today is my colleague from my office Mr. John Lowery, and I appreciate his help. Last week, I spoke a few minutes about the Corporation for Public Broadcasting--we called it the CPB--and the Public Broadcasting Service--most people know what that is, PBS--and the National Public Radio, which most people know is NPR. And I am not going to repeat everything I said last week, but I do want to revise and extend my remarks. The U.S. Congress created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting back in the sixties, 1967, I think. Those were very different times. There was no internet. There was no Facebook. There was no Twitter. There was no cable TV. There were no podcasts. There were basically a handful, maybe a few more, of radio stations throughout America. And the television was still pretty new. There were three main television stations with local affiliates. And many Americans, particularly in rural areas, didn't have access to radio and television for their news because that is all there was. I remember those days. And so Congress decided to start providing money for what it called, at that time, public broadcasting, to make sure that everybody had access to news, radio, and television, even if they didn't live near a big city. And Congress intended that that news be news, factually based. Now, those were the days in America of true journalism. I remember them, perhaps the Presiding Officer does too. Those were not the days that we experience today, opinion journalism, where young journalists are taught to report on who, what, when, where, how, and their opinion. Those were days when the news was really the news, and it was fair and balanced. So the U.S. Congress created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. CPB still exists, and here is its relationship--CPB's relationship--to NPR and PBS. We give CPB, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, about half a billion dollars a year, a lot of money. And the Corporation for Public Broadcasting turns around and picks certain local television and radio stations and gives most of that money to them. And then those local television and radio stations, the chosen few that get money from the American taxpayer through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, buy programming and content from two other organizations. If they are a radio station, they buy that from NPR, and if they are a television station, they buy that content from PBS. So up here you have got Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The American taxpayer, through Congress, gives them a half a billion dollars a year. That money flows down to certain select local television and radio stations, and those local television and radio stations then buy content from NPR, if they are a radio station, or PBS, if they are a TV station, which were loosely affiliated with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Since this scheme was established, the American taxpayer has given all of these entities about--oh, I don't know--$14.5 billion, $14.5 billion. That would be enough to build 2,700 miles of paved roads throughout America. And I based that on--the roads I am talking about are not gavel roads--regular paved roads, 10 feet each lane, actually 12 feet each lane, with a 3-foot shoulder on each side. But instead of building 2,700 miles of roads in our rural areas and in urban areas that need infrastructure, we have decided to give this money to CPB, which gives it to the local stations, which gives it to PBS and NPR. I mentioned the local stations. Only a select few local stations get this taxpayer money. And in my State, we have over 500 radio stations. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in its unfettered discretion, only picks seven to give the money to. The other 493 get nothing. We have over 150 TV stations in Louisiana. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting only gives the taxpayer money for 3 of them, so 147 get nothing. Now, I probably wouldn't object to this if the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and NPR--National Public Radio is what I am referring to, of course--and PBS had been consistent with its original mission, which is to report factually the news to the American people. The government doesn't need to subsidize the media anymore because the world has changed. Ninety-seven percent of the people in America have the internet, but I still probably wouldn't object that much if the reporting by these entities were fair and balanced. But it is not. No fairminded person in America can look at this programming and believe that it is unbiassed. It is decidedly prejudiced in favor of one point of view. That is not just my opinion. I think most Americans would agree with that because most Americans see the headlines that are produced by these three entities. I talked about some last week. This is what Americans' taxpayer money is going to, to provide. Here are just some headlines from NPR. I mentioned these last week. I won't belabor them. ``Michael Avenatti: A Profile Of The Media-Savvy Attorney.'' This is NPR. They love Michael Avenatti, who of course is in jail today. He is a crook. But NPR loved him because he was anti-Republican, and he was anti-President Trump. NPR published another article: ``How racism became a marketing tool for country music.'' Now, you don't have to be Euclid to see the implication here that country music is racist, according to NPR. I don't think any fairminded person would call that factual or fair and balanced. Here is another headline from NPR: ``Donald Trump's Long Embrace of Vladimir Putin.'' I also talked last week about a few other headlines from NPR. Here is one: ``Monuments And Teams Have Changed Names As America Reckons With Racism. Birds Are Next.'' That is what your tax dollars paid for. ``Eating less beef is a climate solution. Here's why that's hard for some American men.'' ``How the Taliban adds to Afghanistan's woes when it comes to climate-fueled disasters.'' No fairminded person with an IQ above a single-cell organism would conclude that this is anything but biased to certain points of view. And there are more. I could do this all night, but I am not. Here are some more headlines from NPR: `` `There is no neutral': `Nice White People' Can Still Be Complicit In A Racist Society.'' That is what your tax dollars paid for. Another one: ``Ibram X. Kendi Says No One is `Not Racist'. So What Should We Do?'' Another one: ``How [artificial intelligence] could perpetuate racism, sexism, and other biases in society.'' Another: ``Scientists Debunk Lab Accident Theory of Pandemic Emergence.'' Here is another one: ``As Trump Pushes Theory of Virus Origins, Some See Parallels In Lead-Up to Iraq War.'' Your tax dollars at work. ``As U.S. Confronts Russia, Trump's Admiration Of Putin Is Consistent.'' Another headline from NPR: ``The History of Policing And Race In The U.S. Are Deeply Intertwined.'' Another: ``After Biden's debate performance, the presidential race is unchanged.'' This was the debate performance that President Biden gave after which he got out of the race. If you believe that headline, you believe in the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny and that Jimmy Hoffa died of natural causes, but that is what NPR reported with your tax dollars. Here is more: ``Democracy on Trial, Part One: A Blueprint For the Case Against Trump.'' Is that fair and balanced? That is from PBS. ``Racism in the Era of Trump: An Oral History.'' Another headline, January 13, 2020. Another, this one is really special: `` `A Serial Liar': How Sarah Palin Ushered in the `Post-Truth' Political Era in Which Trump Has Thrived.'' Now, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and NPR and PBS have the right, whether I like it or not or whether you like it or not or whether Americans like it or not to publish these articles and to broadcast this news. That is the First Amendment, but they don't have the right to do it with taxpayer money. At least half of America would look at these headlines and be offended. They would be offended, first, because they would--really for three reasons: No. 1, they disagree with opinion journalism; No. 2, they would disagree with the headline; and, No. 3, they would disagree with the fact that these headlines are not fair. They are not objective. They are obviously slanted to one point of view, and they are using taxpayer money. If someone introduced a bill tomorrow--I will just pick a publication--to prohibit the New York Times, I would vote against that bill and argue against it. If someone introduced a bill to get rid of FOX News, I would have the same position. If someone introduced a bill to get rid of the Washington Post, that would be my position as well. Whether I agree with those media outlets or not, we have a First Amendment that we cherish, and I am rather fond of the Constitution. But if somebody introduced a bill to give money to CNN, taxpayer money to CNN or to the New York Times or to FOX News, I would oppose that as well. This is simply wrong, and we are spending half a billion dollars a year, $14.5 billion over time, to give to people at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and NPR and NPS to participate in opinion journalism, which they are entitled to do. But they can't do it on the taxpayer dime. They are doing it on the taxpayer dime, but they shouldn't be able to. I would also point out that the folks at PBS and NPR and PBS are doing pretty well for themselves. NPR just bought a $201 million office space just up the road from the Capitol--$200 million. It came from the American taxpayers so they could publish this stuff. NPR pays its hosts as much as $532,000 a year, taxpayer money. It pays its chief diversity officer about $320,000 a year. And you know what? Despite all this money that the American taxpayers are giving to these left-of-center entities, their viewership has declined because people don't need them anymore. So why are we giving them money? I have introduced legislation, not to eliminate the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, not to eliminate the Public Broadcasting Service, and not to eliminate the National Public Radio--they can go exist on their own if they want to, but I do want to defund them. We are running $36 trillion in debt. This is disgraceful in 2025. It is disgraceful whether it is left-of-center opinion journalism or right-of-center opinion journalism. It is disgraceful to the American people to have to fund this rot. It doesn't mean the rot doesn't have a right to exist, but they don't have a right to taxpayer money. It is late. So I am not going to go to my second topic.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Democratic leader, but no later than Friday, February 28, the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be discharged from further consideration of S.J. Res. 10, and the Senate proceed to its consideration; further, that there be 6 hours for debate only, with the time equally divided between the leaders or their designees on the joint resolution; and that following the use or yielding back of that time, the joint resolution be read a third time, and the Senate vote on the joint resolution with no further intervening action or debate.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, is it Wednesday yet? It feels like it. I got over here to vote at 5.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. on Wednesday, February 19; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, morning business then be closed, and the Senate resume consideration of Calendar No. 13, S. Con. Res. 7; further, that at 12 noon, the Senate execute the order of February 13 in relation to the Loeffler nomination and that following disposition of the Loeffler nomination, the Senate recess until 2:15 to allow for the weekly conference lunches; finally, that all time during recess and adjournment count equally towards Calendar No. 13, S. Con. Res. 7; and that if any nominations are confirmed during Wednesday's session, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of Senator Merkley.

Mr. KENNEDY. To whom I apologize for him having to wait so long because of our inefficiencies.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I have one request for a committee to meet during today's session of the Senate. It has the approval of the Majority and Minority Leaders. Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committee is authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, with me this afternoon are three of my colleagues from my office: Ms. Jess Andrews, my communications director; Mr. Henson Webre; and Mr. John Lowery. As I said, they are three of my colleagues in my office. I depend on their counsel and their advice and their good judgment every day. I want to talk for a few minutes about public broadcasting in America, but first I want to make a brief comment about the continuing saga that our new President is doing, in my judgment, a good job of prosecuting here in Washington. I am talking about his audits of Federal Government spending and all of the wasteful spending--I call it spending porn--that he is finding. I want to make two quick points. No. 1, it strikes me as breathtakingly ironic--the Senate might say cynical--that the people who are screaming so loudly about President Trump's decision to audit Federal spending are the very same people who, under President Biden, wanted to hire 80,000 new IRS agents--with guns--to audit the American people. As I have said before, if it weren't for double standards, there wouldn't be any standards at all in this town. The battle lines are drawn. The battle lines are drawn. Some of my colleagues have decided to support the bureaucracy and the spending porn over the American taxpayer. That is what they have done. And some of the same people--it is not just my Democratic colleagues. There are many people in Washington, DC, who have grouped together. They have circled the wagons, and they have decided to support the spending porn and the bureaucrats over the American taxpayer. That is their right. It is not against the law or unconstitutional to be foolish in America. But these are the same people--these are the same people--who chose to support illegal immigration over the rule of law. These are the same people who have chosen to support teachers unions over parents and kids. These are the same people who have chosen to support criminals over cops and victims. These are the same people who have chosen to support transgender athletes over women's sports. These are the same people who have chosen to support Hamas over Israel. They think they are winning. Maybe in this town--in this town--they are if you listen to a lot of the pundits up here, if you listen to a lot of the members of the ``wokerati'' in Washington, but they are not winning in America. The justice stick is coming, and I am very proud to be a part of that effort.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. I yield to Senator Peters, my good friend.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, with me today is one of my colleagues from my Senate office, Mr. James Shea. He is one of my right-hand people and does great work. And I am honored that he could join me today. Gosh, I don't know where to begin. I have been in the Senate for 8 years. In dog years, that is 56 years, and it feels like 56 years. I have learned a lot, met a lot of interesting people. You know, before I got here, everybody told me about the Washington bubble, and I said, you know, how serious could they be. Well, it is true; there is a Washington bubble. This place is different. It is in its own way sometimes disappointing, sometimes refreshing. It is deeply weird. For one thing, common sense is illegal in Washington. It is illegal. For another thing, I have discovered that this is a town of very frustrated ex-class presidents, and there is a Washington way of doing things. And when things aren't done that way, when somebody challenges the status quo, many--not all--but many of these frustrated ex-class presidents in Washington, on the Hill and otherwise, they get excited, not in a good way. They can't get their mind around doing anything other than the Washington way. Some of them, particularly in the media, they go almost catatonic, or the exact opposite, they foam at the mouth. And they really get upset. They can make a Valium nervous. It is like we are not doing things the way we have always done them, and the world is going to spin off its axis. I want to try to put in perspective what many of my Democratic friends have been talking about today. They are very, very, very upset at President Trump, and they are very, very, very upset at Elon Musk. President Trump ran for President on a number of issues. One of the issues he ran on--he said it almost every day. He said: If you make me President, I am going to go through the entire budget and review all the spending, line by line. If I heard him say that once, I heard him say that a thousand times. And that is what he has been doing. He went out and appointed, through an Executive order, Elon Musk--who some people like him, some don't, but he is not a dummy. He is a very successful business person. He has got a top secret security clearance. President Trump issued an Executive order, and he turned to Mr. Musk, and he said: Mr. Musk, I want you to do for me what I said I was going to do in the election. I want you to go through all the spending line by line. Now, let me ask you something: How are you going to review the spending without reviewing the spending? How are you going to audit the spending by an Agency without auditing the Agency? That is what I mean when I say common sense is illegal in Washington, DC. That is what Mr. Musk is doing. He has put together a crackerjack team, and they are going through everybody's spending line by line, item by item. And my Democratic colleagues are very, very, very upset, and they have been very eloquent. They have talked about the process, and President Trump's Executive orders supposedly violates the Constitution. And they have accused Mr. Musk of having conflicts of interest. And I have heard people say he is sitting over there with a notepad copying down everybody's Social Security number, and he is going to go use it to make money. I mean, people in this town--not just my Democratic colleagues--they are really upset. They have never had anybody question their spending. But that is what Mr. Musk is doing. But you know what, I have listened, this has been going on for a week. People have been screaming like they are part of a prison riot. Oh, my God, look at what Musk is doing. He is looking at the spending. And I have listened to the people talk about the process and debate whether it is constitutional and discuss how many lawyers can dance on the head of a pin, but you know what I haven't heard one single person who is upset with President Trump or Mr. Musk talk about? What he has found. They don't want to talk about the spending, the spending porn, the waste of taxpayer money that he has found. I mean, that is the point of all of this. I tell you who is interested, the American people, the people in America who get up every day and go to work and obey the law and pay their taxes and try to educate their kids and try to do the right thing by their kids and try to save a little money for retirement. And they have had to live through 20 percent inflation under President Biden. They understand what Musk is doing. They understand spending porn and wasting taxpayer money. Now, Mr. Musk started with USAID. It handles a lot of foreign aid for America. The American people are very generous. In our country, when you are homeless, we will house you. When you are hungry, we will feed you. In our country, when you are too poor to be sick, we will pay for your doctor. And we send a lot of money overseas to help our world's neighbors. And USAID is a part of that. But I will tell you what Mr. Musk discovered--I will tell you it fascinated me. He discovered that the American taxpayers are giving money to Afghanistan. He found that we are giving money to Yemen. He found that we are giving money to Syria. I didn't know that. Some of our foreign aid is going to Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria. He found that USAID has 10,000 people--10,000 people--employees, and every year, they give away $40 billion. Mr. Musk also found--and I am not saying that all of this money is wasteful; I am not. Some of this money, I am sure, does some good. That is why Secretary Rubio is going to revamp the Department and separate the good from the bad. But this is the kind of stuff Mr. Musk found: He found that USAID gave money to support electric vehicles in Vietnam--our money, taxpayer money. He found that USAID gave money to a transgender clinic in India--I didn't know that. I bet you the American people didn't know that. He found that USAID gave $1.5 million to a Serbian LGBTQ group called Grupa Izadji. I probably mispronounced that. My apologies. Anyway, they got 1.5 million to ``advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia's workplaces and business communities.'' What else did Mr. Musk find that my colleagues don't want to talk about? Well, he reviewed a study and then went and checked it. The study was done by the Middle East Forum. They found that USAID spent $164 million to support radical organizations around the world. We are not talking Cub Scout troops here. We are talking about radical organizations around the world. They gave $122 million of that to groups aligned with foreign terrorist organizations--our taxpayer money. According to this report and Mr. Musk, the USAID has given millions of dollars to ``organizations . . . in Gaza controlled by Hamas.'' Why aren't my colleagues talking about that? Recipients of the money, they found, have ``called for their lands to be `cleansed' from the `impurity of Jews.' '' That is who we are giving our foreign aid to? What else? I am not going to spend my whole time talking about this, but nobody else is talking about it. They are just talking about the process and Mr. Musk and he is a mean guy and he shouldn't be looking at our spending. Well, he is, and I kind of find what he found out interesting. He found that we gave $2 million--USAID did--for sex changes in Guatemala. He found that we gave $20 million to produce a new ``Sesame Street'' show in Iraq. He found that we gave $4.5 million of taxpayer money to combat disinformation in Kazakhstan. He found that we gave $10 million--USAID did--of meals to an al-Qaida-linked terrorist group called the al-Nusrah Front. Mr. Musk found that we gave $7.9 million of taxpayer money to a project that would teach Sri Lankan journalists to avoid binary-gendered language. We took--the USAID took 8 million bucks and gave it to a bunch of journalists in Sri Lanka to teach them how to avoid binary-gendered language. I don't know what the hell binary- gendered language is. I think I do. You think most taxpayers would support that? Why aren't we talking about that? USAID gave $1.5 million to promote LGBT advocacy in Jamaica. They gave $1.5 million to rebuild the Cuban media ecosystem. They gave $1.5 million for Art for Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Belarus, another $3.9 million for LGBT causes in Macedonia, $8.3 million for equity and inclusion education in Nepal. I could go all night. And many of my colleagues are upset. They are really mad at Mr. Musk. Hell, I think we ought to give him a medal. All he is doing is what President Trump said he was going to do. President Trump said he was going to audit the spending. So Trump goes and hires Musk--again, with a top-secret security clearance. Nobody can quibble with his intelligence, you know. The guy is as smart as Einstein's cousin. He is a very successful businessman. Some say he is the richest guy in the world. And he is doing the auditing. And, man, he is finding a lot of stuff. I call it spending porn. Now, I am not saying everything that USAID does is wasted, but I am saying a lot of it is--a hell of a lot of it is. And we ought to be on the floor of this U.S. Senate thanking Mr. Musk, and we ought to be asking him to go through every Agency and look at everybody's budget-- everybody's budget. That is what the American people want. They don't want to talk about process. They don't want to continue with the Washington way. They want to save some money. Now, let me tell you what is really going on here too. For 4 years under President Biden and for, what, 8 years under President Obama--and I respect both of them. I don't hate anybody. I don't. When I say my prayers at night, one of the things I ask God: God, don't let me hate, because it is hard in Washington. Don't let me hate. I have all the respect in the world for President Biden and President Obama. Tough job. But between them, they spent 12 years in Washington. And Presidents set the tone; they control the questions that are asked. And here is the question that President Obama and President Biden asked for 8 years--for 12 years. I heard it every single day: Who needs to pay more in taxes? Is it you? Is it you? Who needs to pay more in taxes? We need more money. Who needs to pony up more? That was the issue. But that is not the issue today. We have a new President. You know what the issue is today? What the hell happened to all of the money? What the hell happened to all of the money? And that is what Mr. Musk is finding out. That is all this is about. I am just shocked that my colleagues have decided that this is the hill they are going to die on. How can you look the American people in the eye and support this kind of waste? Support this kind of spending porn? I mean, the election, to me, made at least one thing clear, that the American people are sick and tired of people in Washington denying reality. The last administration tried to convince us that we were living in a crime-free world where inflation was temporary and the border was secure, and the American people didn't buy it. You know why? Because it wasn't true. And the administration, our last administration, tried to argue that Bidenomics was making our lives better, but the American people knew differently. They understood Bidenomics to mean: I get to spend more to live worse. And they voted. Now, I mean, the American people were poorer under the last administration, but they didn't become stupid. They could see that the government was creating the problem, not trying to fix it. And they noticed the national debt too. Put up that first chart for me. You know what our national debt is? $36 trillion. Not million, not billion--$36 trillion. It takes my breath away. Highest it has ever been, over 100 percent of our gross domestic product. Our debt is growing faster than our economy. And we toss around these numbers--a trillion, a billion, a million, a squillion--like it is nothing. I want to try to put this in context. If I started counting right now and I counted one numeral, if you will, per second--1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7--and I kept counting all day and all night, I didn't sleep, I counted between bites of oatmeal at breakfast, I just counted continually one numeral per second, it would take me 32 years to count to 1 billion--32 years to count to 1 billion. It would be 2057. I would be dead as Woodrow Wilson. I wouldn't live that long, and that is just a billion. Our debt is $36 trillion. Do you know how long it would take me to count to a trillion? It would take 31,000 years if I counted one numeral per second. About as old as Chuck Grassley--31,000 years. It would take me 1 million years to count to 36 trillion. Those are the kind of numbers we are talking about, and the American people understand it. Since 2019, America's population has grown 2 percent. We are not having babies--2 percent. And that is after massive immigration. You know how much our budget has grown? It has grown 55 percent--55 percent. Yeah, we have had inflation, but we haven't had 55-percent worth of inflation. That is how we got to this $36 trillion in debt. Put up the next chart for me. Now some of this money we had to spend during the pandemic, and it was a bipartisan effort during the pandemic. Republicans voted for it, and Democrats voted for it because we had no choice. I was there. I saw it from the inside. We came this close to losing the American economy. And you know who helped a lot, doesn't get enough credit? Jay Powell with the Federal Reserve. I watched it. The whole world wanted to go into a cave and retreat. Back in the great recession, I remember all the other countries in the world looked to us. They may hate us, but they know we are the greatest country in all of human history. They look to America. And you know what? Back in the great recession, all the other countries wanted treasuries, treasury notes, treasury bonds. Not this time. They were so scared; they didn't want treasuries. They wanted dollars, cash dollars. So Jay Powell--thank the Lord--he goes over to the Federal Reserve. He opens what is called a currency swap line. And he told every country: You want dollars? I will trade you dollars for your currency. Everything calmed down. He doesn't get any credit for that, but it was a gutsy thing to do. But on top of that, to save the American economy--that wasn't helping the American economy. We had to keep the economy going. We spent a lot of money. But then COVID ended. And what we should have done was go back to pre-COVID spending, but we didn't do that. President Biden, after the shutdowns and the coronavirus, the pandemic was over, passed the American Rescue Plan. COVID was over. He spent $1.9 trillion. Never let a good crisis go to waste. I didn't vote for it. Then he came back and passed what he called an infrastructure deal. It was really just the green new deal. I know what is in that bill. That was another $1.2 trillion. And then he passed the Inflation Reduction Act. I didn't vote for it. But that was another $1.0 trillion. And then he passed the CHIPS Act. This is really special. He said: Big Tech, the semiconductor companies, need our money. They need taxpayer money. They are not making enough money. And he gave them money. He didn't give hardware stores money. President Biden didn't give the healthcare industry money. He said: I want to help Big Tech, and, boy, they sucked it up like a Hoover Deluxe. We spent $280 billion subsidizing Big Tech. And you add it all up, and that is 4.3, almost $4.5 trillion, and that is how we got $36 trillion in debt. And that is why Donald Trump said: I am going to look at every single line item we are spending. And that is why he gave the job to Elon Musk. And that is why Musk is altering these accounts. But nobody wants to talk about what he is finding. Nobody wants to talk about the spending part, except the American people. They get it, Mr. President. They get it. I hope Mr. Musk continues. My colleague and friend--we had a little discussion in Banking today. Senator Warner makes a good point. He wants Mr. Musk to come over and talk to Congress about how he is doing this. I am all for that. I am all for that. I would love to have him come over and walk us through what he is doing and how he is discovering all this spending part. We need all the help we can get in reducing our spending because we can't continue at this pace. I just want to spend a few minutes putting all this in perspective. The world is not going to spin off its axis, folks. Every business that I know of goes through an audit. Now we are being audited. But we are being audited by--not by the usual auditors--but we are being audited by a person appointed by the President of the United States. I am betting you, when he is through--and he is going to go through all these Agencies. He is starting on the Department of Education next. I think he will end up finding that some of our money is being well spent, but he is also going to find that some of our money is being stolen and it is being wasted, and that is an insult to every taxpayer in this country. I am going to end like I began. We ought to be giving Mr. Musk a medal. We ought to be thanking him. Maybe nobody else wants to hear about the spending part, but I can't wait to read the book. I hope he finds all of it and compiles it. I hope Marco Rubio, the new Secretary of State, takes USAID and shakes them by the shoulder and lifts up the good people there and fires the bad people--the people that wasted taxpayer money like this, giving money to terrorist organizations, giving money to organizations that support Hamas. I hope he gets rid of every single one of them. I think, if we listen to Mr. Musk, we can save a lot of money. And I hope he does come over and explain what he is doing.